Star night turns into nightmare as 15,000 descend on Panjab University campus

What was promised as a glitzy star night for students, singer Arjan Dhillon’s concert proved to be an absolute nightmare, as over 15,000 attendees descended on Panjab University amid varsity’s utter lack of preparedness and mismanagement for such large-scale crowd.

The concert, organised on the concluding day of the ongoing Jhankar Fest, was meant to be the highlight of the event, but instead, it translated into sheer chaos, with unending traffic snarls, broken barricades and a massive uncontrollable crowd.

Amid the pouring crowd of concert-goers, an unexpected closure of the gates opposite PGIMER and Sector 25 pushed the entire traffic towards the gate opposite Sector 15, resulting in complete mayhem.

The five barricades installed near the only open gate, located right next to the Sector 14/15 traffic lights, only exacerbated the jams, severely impacting traffic to and from adjoining areas, including Sectors 11, 12, 15, 24 and 25.

The bedlam forced the organisers to eventually cancel the concert, resulting in further disarray not just on the campus but as far as 2 km away.

Three-hour jam leaves commuters at wit’s end

For over three hours, confusion reigned supreme, while university security, overwhelmed by the situation, appeared helpless in bringing it under control. Lack of planning, poor traffic management and inadequate response to the scale of the event were evident in every corner of the campus. Vulnerable points in the boundary wall were exploited by concert-goers, who managed to sneak into the campus despite the barricades.

This comes just a week after clips of similar rowdy behaviour and hooliganism during Holi celebrations on the campus had surfaced on social media on March 14.

For the disorder that unfolded on Friday, Chandigarh Police blamed the varsity authorities, citing lack of consultation. The PU authorities, on the other hand, appeared clueless and were found blaming security staff, who are only handful in number. Anurag Dalal, the organiser of the event and president of the Panjab University Campus Student Council (PUCSC), placed the blame squarely on university’s mismanagement.

The mess began with the sudden closure of Gate number 1 (opposite PGIMER) and 3 (opposite south campus in Sector 25) at 5.30 pm, when concert-goers were already making their way in large numbers.

Though a circular regarding this was issued by the DSW to the PU chief of university security on March 20, the information was neither shared with the media nor the students. The gates’ closure caught everyone off guard, and soon, the traffic situation spiralled out of control.

Even before the gates were closed in the evening, the traffic had begun worsening in the afternoon itself. As students and outsiders attempted to enter the concert venue near PU’s Law auditorium, the process was slowed down by lengthy ID checks at the gates, bringing traffic to a crawl.

While the university had printed 500 passes for the event, an unexpected 15,000 people showed up, leading to further chaos.

DSW Amit Chauhan admitted that they hadn’t expected so many people to turn up. “The Agaaz fest held earlier this month was attended by only around 1,000 people. As the number was so large on Friday, the concert had to be called off.”

But varsity’s lack of proper planning and foresight was laid bare as the crowd began pouring in around 5.30 pm. There was no sign of any traffic cop to manage the situation. PU officials later confirmed that the traffic jam stretched up to 2 km beyond the university.

A resident of PU shared that it took over an hour just to travel from the cremation ground light point to the university gate, a journey that normally takes only a few minutes.

As the concert 8 pm schedule drew closer and the singer had still not arrived, the students, growing restless, began pushing and shoving, breaking the barricades in front of the stage area.

The commotion around the campus and the crowd’s unruly behaviour forced the event organisers to call off the concert entirely at the last moment. Further havoc ensued as the crowd started to leave the small venue.

Police lay blame on varsity

A senior police official stated that the responsibility for managing the event rested with the university’s security staff, and police were there only to assist them.

“We were merely informed about the event and not consulted about how to organise it. We made arrangements for 5,000 people, but the actual crowd was far larger Around 130 cops were deployed at the venue but no provisions for parking were made. Also, concert-goers didn’t just use the gates. As seen during Holi, there are vulnerable points on PU’s boundary wall near University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS) and near the Gurdwara side, where visitors scaled the wall to get in the campus,” the official added.

SSP (Traffic) Sumer Pratap Singh said it was PU’s responsibility to regulate traffic inside the varsity which was why there weren’t any traffic cops deployed on the campus.

PU’s chief of university security Vikram Singh explained that had all gates been opened, the situation would have worsened due to the sheer size of the crowd: “There was no way to effectively manage such a big crowd. I have proposed seeking an NOC from police regarding all such events in future.”

The varsity, housing 78 departments and 20 hostels, has just around 250 security personnel in all, which officials complained just weren’t adequate to manage big events like this.

With another major event, featuring popular Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan, set to take place during the Jashan-e-Riwayat fest at PU on March 25, it remains to be seen whether the varsity will learn any lessons or a repeat of the Friday mayhem will unfold.